Syria conflict: ‘200 air force strikes’ in 36 hours
The Syrian military has stepped up air strikes on rebel areas dramatically, carrying out more than 200 in recent days, opposition activists say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids took place mostly in western areas between midnight on Sunday and noon on Tuesday.
The UK-based group said there were many casualties, but did not give a figure.
The intensified strikes come as US-led forces continue to bomb Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq.
US and Arab jets have been attacking IS positions in around the northern Syrian town of Kobane, where Kurdish fighters are under siege.
Overnight, US officials said they were examining a video that appeared to show IS fighters in possession of a bundle of military aid dropped by aircraft near Kobane on Sunday.
IS jets ‘destroyed’
The Syrian air force’s strikes targeted rebel-held areas in Quneitra, Deraa, the Damascus countryside, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory said.
The Syrian Observatory said many people were killed and dozens wounded in the air strikes
Analysts said the military might be trying to weaken rebels before they receive training from the US
The provinces stretch from the country’s south-west through the capital, Damascus, to the far north-west.
The eastern province of Deir al-Zour, where government forces have been battling IS militants, was also bombed over the same period.
At least eight people were also reportedly killed on Tuesday in an air raid on a rebel-held town along Syria’s southern border with Jordan.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, said government planes had dropped explosives-laden canisters on Nassib.
On Wednesday, warplanes carried out 10 strikes on the towns of Murak and Kafr Zaita, in Hama province, the Observatory said.
The Syrian Observatory says the air force carries out 12 to 20 strikes a day on average so the 210 that took place over 36 hours represent a rapid increase.
Analysts said the military might be stepping up its air campaign in an effort to weaken rebel groups before they began receiving training and equipment from the US and its allies so that they can take the fight to IS on the ground in Syria.
In a separate development, Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the Syrian air force had destroyed two of three fighter jets seized by IS.
Mr Zoubi told Syrian TV late on Tuesday that the jets were bombed as they landed on the runway of the Jarrah air base in the eastern Aleppo countryside. The air force was searching for the third jet, he added.
On Friday, activists said IS militants had flown the jets over Aleppo with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots.
Mr Zoubi also said the Syrian army and air force had been providing military and logistical support to the Kurdish fighters in Kobane, despite not being part of the international coalition fighting IS.
“From the outset of the battle, the state has not hesitated to play its military, political, social and humanitarian role” because the town is “Syrian territory and its residents are Syrians,” he said.
More than 191,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011. Another nine million people have been driven from their homes.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29720384